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epichero22Flag for United States of America

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Command prompt flashing when starting PC

A user is complaining that she sees a flashing command prompt underscore when starting her Windows 7 desktop, and it sometimes lasts longer on certain boots than others.  It then displays the Windows 7 boot animation, but she's concerned it may be something more serious.

Do you know what the flashing prompt means?  Is there a way to make it not show?


Thanks!
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Tom Cieslik
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It looks like your computer BIOS have a hard time to comunicate with Hard Drive.
It can point to boot record issue or Hard Drive itself.

I would say your HDD is about to Die,, so be prepare to replace it.

Of you still can and data is important just download AOMEI backuper and create HDD backup or Mirror it to new drive.
http://www.backup-utility.com/free-backup-software.html
Tom gave an excellent answer and I want to second it.  If you watch the HD LED you will likely see that it stays lit while the blinking cursor is being displayed.  This would be the case if it was having trouble reading the drive but eventually succeeded.

I would agree with backing up (duplicating) the drive right away.  If it is failing (not certain but very possible) then you want to catch it when it can still be read and duplicated.  After a successful copy (and test), I'd run diagnostics on the original drive.
Agreed with both comments.  Additionally, after taking the backup of the said drive, try running a chkdsk /r or /f.  /F Fixes errors on the disk or /R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information then marks the bad sectors so that the system will not try to use them again. /R will definitely take longer to run for obvious reasons.
I've seen this happen if they have a USB hard drive plugged in. The BIOS has a boot order and if there are other things ahead of your internal hard drive, it may try to boot from those items. Often USB drives get put first and this may be causing the delay.
It depends on when exactly this flashing cursor appears. After the Windows logo or before it?
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ASKER

It's before the Windows logo.

We actually replaced the hard drive on this PC.  The first HD failed SMART testing so we put a new HD in:

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Performance-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B00FJRS6FU/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Is there software to test this hard drive?
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nobus
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"We actually replaced the hard drive on this PC.  The first HD failed SMART testing so we put a new HD in: "

Was this before or after the blinking cursor issue?
"Was this before or after the blinking cursor issue? "

The blinking cursor happened both before and after the replacement.
epichero, can you answer my 2 Questions also?
I'I'm going to try the WD tools when I get a chance.  I haven't been able to log in.
WD Lifeguard passed on both the quick test and extended test.  I'm thinking it's the RAID setting.
Thank you for the suggestions.